A communication system is formed, at a minimum, of a sending and a receiving station. The sending and receiving stations are interconnected by way of a communication channel. Information to be communicated by the sending station is sent upon the communication channel to the receiving station. A wide variety of different types of communication systems have been developed and implemented to effectuate communication of information between the sending and the receiving stations.
A radio communication system is a type of communication system in which the communication channel interconnecting the sending and receiving stations is formed of a radio channel defined upon a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because a radio channel is utilized to form a communication link between the sending and receiving stations, a wired connection, conventionally required in a wireline communication system, is obviated. Through the use of a radio channel upon which to communicate communication signals between the sending and receiving stations, communications are effectuable at, and between, positions at which the formation of wireline connections would be impractical.
A cellular communication system is a type of radio communication system, and is regularly utilized by large numbers of consumers to communication both voice and nonvoice information. Cellular communication systems have been installed throughout wide geographical areas and have achieved wide levels of usage. A cellular communication system generally includes a fixed network infrastructure including a plurality of fixed-site base transceiver stations. The fixed-site base transceiver stations are installed at selected positions throughout a geographical area which is to be encompassed by the communication system. The fixed network infrastructure of which the base transceiver stations form portions is coupled to a public network, such as a PSTN (public-switched, telephonic network) or packet data backbone. Correspondent nodes are coupled to the public network. Portable transceivers, referred to as mobile stations, communicate with the base stations by way of radio links forming portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Locations at which to install the fixed-site base stations are carefully selected so that a mobile station is within communication range of at least one base transceiver station when the mobile station is positioned at any location within the geographical area to be encompassed by the cellular communication system. A cellular communication system is relatively bandwidth efficient. That is to say, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum allocated to the communication system upon which to define radio channels is relatively efficiently utilized. Through appropriate positioning of the base transceiver stations, only low-power signals are required to be generated. And, the same radio channels can be reused at different locations throughout the geographical area encompassed by the communication system. The ability to reuse the same radio channels permits the efficient utilization of the allocated spectrum.
Ideally, distortion is not introduced upon a communication signal during its communication upon a radio, or other, communication channel. That is to say, ideally, a communication signal is identical in value subsequent to its communication upon the communication channel to its value prior to communication upon the channel.
However, in a nonideal communication system in which the communication signal is transmitted upon a nonideal communication channel, the signal is distorted during its communication upon the communication channel. The distortion of the communication signal caused during its propagation upon the communication channel causes dissimilarities to result. If the distortion is significant, the informational content of the communication signal can not be accurately recovered subsequent to communication upon the communication channel.
For instance, fading caused by multi-path transmission might distort the communication signal. If significant levels of fading are exhibited, the informational content of a communication signal might be unrecoverable.
Various techniques are utilized to overcome distortion introduced upon a communication signal as a result of transmission upon a nonideal communication channel, such as a communication channel which exhibits fading.
Transmit diversity, for instance, is utilized to combat the effects of fading. Time-encoding of a signal, prior to its transmission upon the channel, is sometimes utilized to counteract the distortion introduced upon the signal. Time-encoding increases the redundancy of the signal. By increasing the time redundancy, the likelihood that the informational content of the signal can be recovered, subsequent to its communication upon the communication channel, is increased. Introducing time redundancy into the signal is sometimes referred to as creating time diversity.
Utilization of space diversity is also sometimes utilized to overcome distortion introduced upon the communication signal. Typically, space diversity refers to the utilization of more than one transmit antenna transducer from which a communication signal is transmitted, thereby to provide spatial redundancy. The antenna transducers are typically separated by distances great enough to ensure that the signals communicated by the respective antenna transducers fade in an uncorrelated manner.
Combinations of both space and time diversity are sometimes utilized together. Transmit diversity to combat signal fading can be further enhanced.
When space diversity is utilized, signal applied to the separate antenna transducers are weighted in manners to facilitate communication of the communication signal. Different weightings can be applied to different ones of the antenna transducers.
Closed-loop feedback of information related to the weightings to be applied to the separate antenna transducers has been proposed. A proposed cellular communication system, referred to as a 3G-WCDMA (third generation, wideband code division multiple access) sets forth a system in which transmit diversity is utilized by the base transceiver stations operable therein. Closed-loop feedback of weighting information is returned by the mobile station to the base transceiver station. Weighting values are adjusted responsive to the feedback information.
The bandwidth available on the reverse link, feedback path between the mobile station and the base transceiver station is, however, severely limited. In one proposal, only a single bit of feedback data is able to be sent by the mobile station to the base transceiver station every fifteen milliseconds (ms). The feedback is highly quantized; hence, its resolution is quite limited. Set partitioning of the feedback, along with filtering of the feedback, has been proposed to increase the constellation size for the transmit weights.
A single feedback bit can be used to provide relative phase weightings between, e.g., two transmit antennas in a two-antenna transmit array. The single feedback bit necessitates only a two-point constellation in the feedback of the phase indication.
The use of filtered feedback modes can compensate for this limitation. Here, the acutual, subsequent transmit weighting selected responsive to the feedback is a function of more than one feedback weight. Also, phase constellations corresponding to the feedback bits differ in even and odd slots. That is, set partitioning is thereby done on a four-point constellation.
Feedback verification, however, is a problem associated with closed-loop transmit diversity communication schemes, including that proposed for the 3G-WCDMA cellular communication system. The feedback path extending from the mobile station to the base transceiver station is not distortion-free. Disotortion creates discrepancies between the expected and actual transmit weights.
Dedicated pilot symbols are inserted into the data communicated upon a traffic channel and are used to verify downlink weighting values. Slot-by-slot verification is to be utilized. However, prior errors in the verification affect a current weight estimation. Thus verification error is propagated in successive estimations.
An improved manner by which to verify the antenna weighting values detected at the mobile station, or other receiving station, is therefore required.
It is in light of this background information related to communication systems which utilize transmit diversity that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.